Volleyball Drops 3-1 Decision at Iona

NEW ROCHELLE, NY -
Sarah Wiener had a team-high 14 kills, making just three errors, to help the Iona College women's volleyball team get past visiting Sacred Heart University 3-1 (26-24, 21-25, 25-17, 25-21) Thursday night.

The loss was the second straight for the Pioneers, who fall to 12-6. Iona improves to 12-5.

Sacred Heart took a quick 8-3 lead in the opening set, riding the serve of sophomore Courtney Kidd-Kadlubek (Santa Barbara, CA) and the hitting of freshman Maile Hetherington (Thousand Oaks, CA). The Pioneers stretched it to 11-5 after another Hetherington kill, set up by Kidd-Kadlubek.

After a kill by Brittany Best (Norco, CA), the Pioneers appeared to be in control with a 19-12 lead. The Gaels had a lot of life left, however, and ripped off eight of the next nine points to tie the game at 20-20. SHU had a set point at 24-22 with Aurora Appel (Mendham, NJ) serving, but a Rachel Whitten kill kept the Gaels alive. They ran off the next three points and escaped with the 26-24 win.

The Pioneers took the second set 25-21 thanks to hitting a crisp .375 in the game with 16 kills and just four errors. Hetherington collected six of those kills, while freshman Ashlyn Trimble (Temecula, CA) had four.

Iona won the third set easily, 25-17, and then built an 8-2 lead in the fourth. SHU came alive and managed to tie the set at 12-12, thanks in large part to Colberg's serve and the offensive attack led by Best. The Gaels took control from that point and scored the next five points off the serve Laura Fojanesi.

The Pioneers will be off until Wednesday when they make a trip to Storrs to take on the University of Connecticut.